A Change School Journey - Goole High School
Goole High School is a Change School in more ways than one: formerly called Vermuyden, the school has not only undergone a name change and the introduction of a smart new school uniform, but also significant staff structural and professional development changes and will – this autumn – see the unveiling of a partial new build funded by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Its motto of ‘Daring to be Excellent’ gives some indication of the drive, energy and creative spark that underpins Goole High School activity and the Creative Partnership’s Change School Programme has an integral part to play in what Ofsted termed a ‘good and rapidly improving school’ (January 2009).
In its first year as a Change School, staff and Year 9 students in the maths and art faculties worked alongside Mat Lazenby, from graphic design company LazenbyBrown based in York, to investigate the links between the two subjects by creating digital/regenerative art. In the first instance, maths staff briefly tested out a computer programming package to understand how it worked. The package was then introduced to Year 9 Maths lessons so that students could write their own programme to create shapes, colour and moving images on screen. Staff’s understanding and ability to teach the students was soon overtaken by the young people themselves, who experimented with different combinations and began to show each other – and their teachers – how to create new images. The same students, in their Art lessons, spent time developing their understanding of colour theory, mood and the use and application of PhotoShop. Towards the end of the project a world-leading generative artist, Gwen Vanhee based in Belgium, was invited to look over the students final images displayed on Flickr and comment on their creations (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/goole_high_school/). In terms of outcomes, staff particularly noted the way in which a number of students who were often disengaged in maths became energised and confident during the project; some students took the initiative to download the software and continued to work on the computer programmes in their own time at home; and the learning of both staff and students increased noticeably as a result of their experimental, collaborative and interactive approach to lessons. Following on from this project, the maths and art faculties are introducing other joint projects to build on their initial work and take forward what they learnt.
The partial new build of this Maths and Computing Specialist School is a significant milestone as Goole High School is celebrating its centenary this year and the marrying of the old listed building with the new structure mirrors the way in which the school seeks to integrate old and new, inside and out, education and community.
Its second project in Year 2/3 is seeking to support improved communications between the school and its community and will see the introduction of new activities and traditions for students, their families – including younger siblings – and the community. The project has two strands, non-verbal and virtual communications, and will be working with dance and ICT practitioners to investigate and support engagement locally and internationally in view of the increasing number of students of other languages who come to the school.
However, the major project in Goole High School’s second year as a Change School is one which focuses on the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). For the school, the key issue in introducing PLTS is the extent to which staff themselves are able to model how to be ‘creative thinkers’ so that students can develop their understanding of the mindset and skills that are involved in applying it to their whole life, not just their studies. Staff in the humanities faculty are piloting the project which will, later in the project, be tested out with students from the Student Leadership Group and – once evaluated and revised – will then form part of staff’s development programme at the school and be linked in with their professional competences. The practitioners Mat Lazenby and Gary Brown from LazenbyBrown have spent time with Humanities staff looking at the economic significance of developing creative thinking in young people so that they become pro-active individuals who are keen to take risks, experiment and think differently when they set out into the rapidly changing world of work. Staff have evaluated their own mindset and creative thinking skills and are now experimenting with using mind maps as a way of not just challenging their thought processes and as an approach to lesson planning but – significantly – as a tool for students to use to demonstrate their creative thinking and levels of understanding of a subject e.g. for PLTS assessment and revision purposes.
It is an exciting and dynamic period at Goole High School and, by the end of the three year Change School programme, the School Co-ordinator John Niland (Assistant Headteacher) and Creative Agent Sarah Jackson envisage that there will have been some significant and deep-seated change that will continue to impact on the school as it moves forward into the future.
